Umm… exactly how many international level equestrian competitions do they host?
I mean sure the local showgrounds up the road does all kinds of disciplines…Up to a certain level.
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And this is the point that really needs to be made. There are just as many event horses trying to get back to Europe as dressage horses, and they don’t seem to making any fuss about being moved to Monday. How are all those horses going to get home if the schedule is so inflexible?
Personally, I think the freestyle should go on on Monday with or without the thirteen dressage horses… It’s the countries’ and riders’ free choice whether to compete or not.
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Is it really realistic to ask TIEC to put everything together for two riders? Similarly, how many people are going to drive a hour, take the shuttle, etc. for two rides?
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There were close to 100 dressage horses. All of them came with freestyles. If some withdraw, there are other horses and riders who can move up. The quality won’t be as high, but at least the dressage people won’t be dictating what happens. This is just as much of a power struggle as not.
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But the other horses didn’t qualify for the freestyle. Only 15 qualified, and my understanding is that many of the top riders elected to withdraw (the Germans, the Americans, and the British). I don’t have the start list in front of me, but I wonder how many that would have left. And since they could not get the footing in the indoor arena repurposed in time for the dressage horses, it sounds like they pretty much had no other choice but to cancel since they are not willing to try to run the freestyle in the extremely heavy downpours expected tomorrow.
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So–we are to assume that because this is an international level competition, that the footing will never be used again for any other purpose? I’m only pointing out that it is possible that re-doing the footing isn’t the limiting factor (it looks like the shipping arrangements are). So it’s kind of a moot point, no?
And, yeah, if the arena up the road can do it, I would expect that TIEC can, as well.
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I love coth for these kinds of arguments :lol::lol:
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Are they on the same flight ? The eventers arrived I think a few days (7th) after the dressage horses (4th). At least those from GB did. The dressage horses flew with the reiners.
It is pretty common for major equestrian indoor venues to to completely remove the sand/clay/silt reining footing, and bring in the sand/fiber/GGT dressage and jumping footing overnight It is usually stored in piles outside. The Alltech arena at the KHP did this for WEG in 2010. Luckily sand/fiber/GGT footing can be wetter during installation than reining footing. No Way would international level dressage horses compete on sand/clay/silt footing, no matter how packed or fluffed.
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I think I saw in the document about the shipping regulations that–for whatever reason–the dressage horses who are not flying have to be off the grounds one day earlier than the event horses. No clue why. Maybe the same thing applies to the horses flying, for whatever reason. I think there’s a lot about all of this that we just don’t know about.
That would mean you had to have spare sand/fiber/GGT available !
Yup. ES did all the arenas here at the Colo Horse Park, and there is still a huge pile of mix sitting there, so maybe… I would think the Tryon Partners had planned for that indoor to be changed out, as there will seldom, if ever, be a reining there. Major reining events need multiple indoor arenas all with reining footing.
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Only 15 qualified, and my understanding is that many of the top riders elected to withdraw (the Germans, the Americans, and the British).
Well, the Americans presumably were not constrained by flights.
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Happens at Harrisburg, too. They run a pretty major horse show there 
They also have things like bull riding and dog shows and alpaca shows and indoor archery and volleyball. They also change the footing out in the indoor at PG (where they do Cap Challenge, plus the qualifiers for WIHS) from jumping and dressage footing, to bare floor for stuff like cheerleading and graduations; I know at one show there the other year, they had to move classes out of the indoor because it was put in wrong, but it was fixed by the next day. But that presumes you have the footing on hand and ready to change, and from the sound of everything, TIEC may not have been the most prepared venue overall, for a variety of reasons.
I’m bemused by the number of people who seem outraged by the entire affair. Is it crappy? Yeah. Is it unfortunate? Absolutely. But even with the flight nonsense (“THEY COULD FLY OUT LATER!” paraphrased argument) set aside: Asking riders to compete horses on footing they aren’t 110% sure of, and have no opportunity to ride on beforehand to see how it performs, isn’t really a realistic expectation. I laud any and all rider/owners who made the judgement call they felt was most necessary to make to ensure the safety and the soundness of their horses. Even if it means putting everyone (themselves included!) in a tough position, at the end of the day: the wellbeing of the horse (rightfully!) comes first.
(And even if they were told what the footing would be switched out for, or received assurances of the procedure of, we all know that accidents happen and sometimes things just don’t go the way we plan, so being able to engage with a product first-hand before going out and ensuring how it performs/handles/reacts is crucial. I can’t really find it in me to blame riders for making this call, and I certainly don’t see it as some dressage coup or power struggle…?)
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Methinks there is maybe a little bit of politics at play as well. Plus I don’t discount the weather outlook.
Every facility has to deal with footing. You can’t tell me that there has never been a footing “predicament” of some level at another facility with international dressage.
Either there is no other footing which is hard to believe wasn’t planned for or there are other factors at play (like the flights and available stalls) as well.
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My understanding is that the plan for the covered arena all along was that the reining footing would be pulled out after their events concluded and different footing would be put in before the vaulting horses competed in there.
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This feels a lot more like a power play than anything else.
Yes, the flight schedules present a not insignificant problem. But I find it hard to believe that there has NEVER before been a need to reschedule major international flights like this. I also find it hard to believe that these riders/countries don’t have the resources to make that happen if necessary.
The footing argument, as others have pointed out, is also coming off a bit oddly. The reining footing was already going to be pulled out and replaced before vaulting. What type of footing is preferred/used for vaulting? I’m going to take a wild guess that it’s similar to what is used for dressage, if not the same.
I know this has been a perfect storm (pardon the pun) of circumstances, many of which couldn’t necessarily be anticipated. And perhaps all these issues really are insurmountable, and we’re not getting the full story. But I do worry about the precedent being set of allowing a certain group (any group) of riders to essentially decide unilaterally whether or not a world championship event will be held.
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I am assuming they did not have enough surplus “dressage footing” available and prepositioned near the indoor arena, and/or they didn’t have the equipment and manpower available to get everything changed out during torrential downpours - and in time for the dressage riders to test ride the new footing sometime today.
I saw some reports from volunteers at the site that the primary concern now is to try to prevent flooding and mudslides and washouts, so a lot of equipment and workers have probably been retasked for those efforts.
Another concern is whether FEMA/NCEMA has or will request equipment and manpower for hurricane relief and rescue efforts.
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So if you were in charge, you would have run the freestyle anyway. Where? The covered arena? In uncertain footing? With only riders who were willing to risk their horses - for a medal? Yeah, that decision would have played out very well in the press.
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